The goal of the Arlington Community Wildlife Habitat project (ACWH) is to interest, educate and assist citizens, schools, businesses and community organizations in Arlington County in the creation of wildlife habitats that provide food, water, shelter and places to raise young.

Whether it's in a person's own backyard, on the grounds of a local school or place of worship, on corporate property, in a community garden or parkland, these wildlife habitats will beautify, enrich and improve the local environment, while providing the community with a substantive way to address the area's growing urbanization. Working on the creation of these landscapes will help teach the young and old alike about the plants and wildlife around them and expose them to the beauty of nature¾right in their own backyards.

ACWH, as part of the National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program, is reaching out to those in Arlington County to partner in the creation of a total of more than 1,000 wildlife habitats within the next several years. This will be accomplished through education and outreach activities with individual citizens, families, local schools and with a broad range of civic and community organizations. ACWH will offer workshops and other resources to educate and train Arlingtonians interested in creating habitat landscapes. Demonstration plots will be identified to serve as examples of how one can create different wildlife habitat environments in a diversity of settings. Plans are underway to launch this initiative in fall 2002.

The Arlington Community Wildlife Habitat Project was started in September 2001 by interested citizens; local businesses, such as Wild Birds Unlimited; Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment; the Virginia Native Plant Society, Potowmack Chapter; and the Arlington County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Resources¾all interested in creating more habitat landscapes throughout Arlington to benefit its people, plants and wildlife.